
Class C <> i^ 
Book. 



Mj^ 



/ 






SENATE y...No. 1. 



:^ 



ADDRESS 



HIS EXCELLENCY 

JOHN A. ANDREW, 

TO THE 

TWO BEANCHES 

OP THE 

legislature of Sla$sar|wsetts, 



JANUARY 3, 1862. 



BO ST N.- 
WILLIAM WHITE, PRINTER TO THE STATE. 
180 2. 



ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen of the Senate and 

House of E-epkesentatives : — 

Called by the election of the People of Massachu- 
,setts, we are assembled at the Capitol of the Common- 
wealth to inaugurate a year of momentous duties and 
cares. By the favor of our fathers' God — whose 
blessing we most humbly implore, from whom cometh 
down all strength and wisdom, and who alone can 
give the victory, — this people, fortunate in all the cir- 
cumstances of their history, and in the opportunities 
of patriotism, rising to the height of the great 
occasion, girding up their loins, and stretching out 
their hands to grasp and encounter the future, are 
summoned to a new consecration to the cause of Him, 
of their country, and the rights of mankind. 

You, as lawgivers of the State, will know how best 
to assist and guide them, by devoting an hour to an 
estimate of our present condition, prospects, and 
wants. 



4 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

Finances. 

The ordinary expenses of the Commonwealth for 
the year ending December 31, 1861, payable from 
the ordinary revenue, amount so far as now ascer- 
tained by the Auditor, to ;^922,208.08, to which 
there should be added about ;^ 100,000 more, on 
account of expenses incurred, of which no returns 
have yet been made, making the total ordinary expenses 
properly belonging to the year about a million dollars. 
And to this is to be added an expenditure of 
;^24,860.98, incurred in the equipment of troops 
under the provisions of chapter 67 of the Acts of 
1861, by the provision of which equipment in 
advance, our militia regiments were somewhat prepared 
for the prompt movement which they made to the 
defence of Washington in April. 

The total payments for the year, from the treasury, 
on account of ordinary expenses, were ^1,180,408.69, 
being in part chargeable to liabilities incurred during 
the former year, the expenses properly chargeable to 
the present year being as stated above. The ordinary 
revenue receipts of the treasury, for the year were, in 
the aggregate, ^1,127,166.62, exhibiting when com- 
pared with the payments, a deficiency of ;^53,242.07, 
for which provision needs to be made by legislation. 

The following tabular statement exhibits the ac- 
counts to which the payments of the Treasurer during 
the year are chargeable : — 



^^ 



1862.] 



SENATE— No. 1. 



Executive Depai'tment, Governor and Council, 

Secretary's Department, 

Treasurei''s Department, 

Auditor's Department, . 

Legislative Department, 

Judicial Department, . 

Att'y-Genl's Department, and for District- Attorneji 

Agricultural Department, .... 

Sergeant-at-Arms' Department, and State House, 

Adjutant-General's Department, Militia, &c., . 

Insurance Commission, 

Bank Commission, 

Charitable Institutions, 

Correctional Institutions, 

Public Buildings, . 

Interest, 

Miscellaneous, 



Total payments. 
Total revenue receipts. 



Deficit, 



$18,216 47 

24,723 55 

5,823 33 

5,720 98 

169,983 07 

152,754 00 

18,127 34 

29,287 57 

12,662 34 

93,756 68 

5,669 28 

9,843 59 

289,492 73 

125,527 76 

37,800 00 

116,492 98 

64,587 02 

$1,180,408 69 
1,127,166 62 

$53,242 07 



The floating debt of P00,000 has been funded 
during the year, agreeably to the Act of the last 
Legislature, thereby increasing our permanent liabili- 
ties by that amount. They have also been increased 
during the year 1861, on account of the Troy and 
Greenfield Railroad, ^297,208. 

The total expenditure for military purposes on 
account of the existing war, as authorized by chapter 
216 of the Acts of 1861, amounts, so far as rendered 
at the close of business in the Auditor's Department, 
December 31, 1861, to P,384,644.88, classified in 
the accompanying recapitulation, — which includes 
also one warrant drawn on January 1st, 1862 : 



6 



GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. 



[Jan. 



Miscellaneous, 
Arms and Equipments, including camp equipage, 
horses, harnesses, baggage and ambulance wagons 
Pay, . 
Clothing, 
Subsistence, . 
Transportation, 
Medical and Hospital, 

Total, 



$263,047 47 

$1,668,649 94 

, 93,631 38 

1,015,931 49 

209,489 36 

101,602 26 

32,292 98 

$3,384,644 88 



Excluding that warrant, the total amount of pay- 
ments on account of military expenses, under chapter 
216, was ^^3,343,694.41, and the total amount of 
receipts on account of those expenses has been 
^987,263.54, which receipts are briefly recapitulated 
in the following table, and have so accrued to the 
treasury that at no time has the net liability of the 
Commonwealth on account of such expenses reached 
p,000,000 :— 

Receipt in cash from the United States of 40 per cent. 

of military expenditures, to close of September, . $775,000 00 
Amount returned on account of certain commissary 

disbursements, 2,877 39 

Duties refunded on importations of arms, . . . 35,340 00 

Sale of steamer Cambridge, 37,500 00 

Earnings of steamer Cambridge, .... 20,622 98 

Sale of steamer Pembroke, 24,735 00 

On account of supplies paid for three months troops, 33,657 26 
Sale of ordnance to State of Maine,. . . . 21,005 35 
From U. S. Quartermaster- General's, Commissary- 
General's, and Ordnance Departments, . . , 36,515 56 

Total, . $987,263 54 

There is also due to the Commonwealth, on account 
of sales of ordnance and ordnance stores : — 



^ ^ 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 7 

From the State of Ohio, $20,127 50 

From the State of New Hampshire, . . . . 15,887 75 

From the United States, ...... 7,641 88 



Total, $43,657 13 

To which should be added the further sum of 
;^19,950 due from the United States, but not yet 
received, for the earnings of the Steamer Pembroke, 
which amount was settled on conference with the 
United States Quartermaster-General, as that justly 
due, and of which payment ought immediately to be 
made to the Commonwealth, and is daily expected. 

If we consider as cash this sum of ^19,950, and 
also the ^43,657.13 due from Ohio, New Hampshire, 
and the United States, on account of sales of ordnance 
which they needed and we were able to supply, these 
in addition to the ;^987,263.54 already stated, make 
an aggregate of ^1,050,860.67 of receipts, and 
deducting that sum from ^^3,343,694.41, the amount 
of the disbursements at the close of the year, our net 
liability, on account of military expenditures incurred 
during the year 1861, under the provisions of 
chapter 216 of the Acts of that year, is thus far 
.^^2,292,833.74. 

Military. 

For the details of our military conduct and ex- 
penditure, which are impossible of recital here, I 
respectfully refer to the full Report of the Adjutant- 



8 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

General which is already in press, attended by those 
of the Quartermaster-General, the Commissary- 
General, and the Surgeon-General, and the Report 
of the Committee of three Councillors whom I ap- 
pointed early in the year to supervise military 
contracts, and by whom nearly all the contracts for 
Quartermaster's supplies were actually made. The 
uniform of one regiment (the 12th, Colonel Webster,) 
will not be found in the report of the Committee; 
but it will appear in that of the Quartermaster- 
General, since although it was paid for as a military 
expense of the State, the regiment at its own request 
selected a particular uniform and contractor. Cer- 
tain items belonging to bureaus not existing at 
first, for that reason do not appear in their accounts, 
but elsewhere. Called on from time to time, always 
without premonition, suddenly and after we had been 
discouraged to expect more requisittoiis — it has been 
impossible to arrange with satisfactory forecast a 
system of operations, such as the history of the year, 
could it have been foreseen by all parties, would 
have called for. 

But, with alacrity and zeal, and with unquestioning 
submission to the wants of the Department of War, 
and at its special and repeated requests, we have 
devoted ourselves to raising, recruiting, training, en- 
camping, subsisting, arming, equipping and supplying, 
with all the arms, armament and warlike munitions, 
and with the uniforms, camp equipage, and transpor- 



<^ /:> 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 9 

tation known to the regulations of the army, the 
volunteers demanded of the State. And the endeavor 
has been, so far as it could be done, to conform to 
such regulations. But we could not avoid adapting 
military movements somewhat to our own militia 
system, and to the opinions and pre-ocupations of the 
people; else the great movement would have been 
discouraged, and the ranks slowly, or never, filled. 
The State has contributed five regiments of infantry, 
one battery of artillery, and one battalion of rifles, 
of her militia, to the three months service. To the 
three years service she has sent as volunteers, twenty- 
four regiments of infantry, one of cavalry, five batte- 
ries of artillery, two companies of sharpshooters, and 
an infantry battalion of five companies. Six com- 
panies more became attached to two regiments from 
the State of New York. Besides expenditures on 
these objects, are the investments in purchasing and 
expenses of running the steamers Cambridge and 
Pembroke in the public service. These steamers 
have been sold, and their cost and expenses covered 
by the prices obtained, and by the adjustments made 
with the Federal Government for their services as 
transports and gunboats. 

By chapter 2 1 of the Acts passed at the extra ses- 
sion of Congress on the 27th of July last, provision 
was made for refunding to the States the amounts of 
their military expenditures in behalf of the United 
States ; and it is under this Act that we have already 



10 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

been reimbursed to the amount of ^775,000, and our 
accounts have been presented to the Federal auditors 
for all the balance to that date. Our subsequent 
military expenditures have been made on consultation 
with and at the request of the Secretary of War, who 
asked, — to use his own language under date of Sep- 
tember 5th, — our " active co-operation in the organi- 
zation of an army sufficiently powerful to crush the 
Southern rebellion and forever set at rest the question 
of secession," and stated that in his opinion " the best 
method " was for us " to proceed with the organization 
of regiments as authorized, the expense of which will 
be paid from time to time by requisitions from you, 
accompanied with proper certificates and original 
bills." By an arrangement which I have effected with 
the officers of the Federal Treasury Department, 
certified copies of the bills are received by them 
instead of the originals, and our full accounts have 
accordingly been prepared and presented for audit up 
to a recent date. 

There is also included in these expenses the cost of 
three hundred and fifty blankets and suits of clothing 
sent to Richmond for the use of our Massachusetts men 
there held as prisoners of war, and suffering privations 
both indecent and inhuman. The particulars of their 
necessities were first learned through a letter of the 
Adjutant of the Twentieth Regiment, himself one of 
the prisoners. Without delay I caused these articles 
to be sent, and am happy to learn by information 



c> / 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 11 

from Colonel William Raymond Lee that they have 
been received. I also established a credit in favor of 
the Adjutant for the use of these captives, to the 
amount of one thousand dollars, for the purpose of 
affording means to procure, if possible, medicines for 
the sick, and some alleviations for the feeble, and 
little stores not easily sent or anticipated. These last 
acts are not authorized by any law ; save by the law 
written on our hearts; and they are submitted to 
your generous candor. 

An elaborate report, with tables of the utmost 
minuteness, has been prepared by our present able 
and indefatigable Master of Ordnance, covering all 
the details of the business, property, and expenditure of 
his bureau. Its expenditures have been ^562,488.30 
—of which ^251,339.95 were paid for Enfield rifles, 
and ^23,617.83 for English infantry equipments. The 
balance is made up of American infantry equipments, 
ordnance, ordnance stores of every description, and 
wagons and caissons for the battery companies, 
freight, repairs, and the like. All regiments, and 
companies, whether o!" infantry or artillery, both for 
three months and for three years service, furnished by 
the State to the General Government, have, with the 
exception of one battery, received all their armament 
from the Commonwealth. The horse equipments and 
sabres for the cavalry were received from the United 
States. Of the troops in the three years service, 
fourteen regiments are armed with the Enfield rifled 



12 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

musket, four with the Springfield rifled musket, and 
five with the Springfield smooth bored musket. The 
smooth bored with which the 15th and 21st regiments 
were at first provided were afterwards replaced by 
rifled arms. Of the Massachusetts companies at 
Fortress Monroe, about to be reinforced by three com- 
panies already organized, and now recruited into a 
regiment (the 29th, making our three years infantry 
regiments twenty-four in number,) one company 
received the Springfield and one the Harper's Ferry 
rifle, and the other companies, the Springfield smooth 
bore, which were exchanged for Springfield rifled arms, 
taken from our third and fourth Militia, on leaving 
the Fortress at the expiration of their three months* 
service. Our five companies composing the battalion 
on guard duty at Fort "Warren in Boston Harbor, 
are armed with the Springfield smooth bore. Our 
two companies of sharpshooters carry rifles, mostly 
with telescopic sights, specially selected under direction 
of a committee of the Council. 

With the assent of the Executive Council, I assumed 
the responsibility of making, at a critical moment, a 
loan of two thousand Springfield smooth bores to the 
loyal authorities of Western Virginia, concerning 
which there is an interesting correspondence on the 
files of the Executive Department. 

There is some loss of muskets and more expense 
for repair occasioned by the want of proper handling 
by inexperienced volunteers, drill clubs and militia. 



^ Z-. 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 13 

And the absence of proper accounts in the ordnance 
office during a portion of the year, renders it as yet 
impossible to trace them. There are now in the 
arsenal, (or out for cleansing or repair,) including all 
descriptions of arm, 5,883 muskets and rifles. Of 
these 1,509 are Enfield rifles, and 2,078 Windsor 
rifles. In addition to our original contract for 
Enfield rifles, reported to the Legislature in May; 
under the advice of experienced persons, and in view 
of the difficulty in commanding suitable weapons, I 
caused, with the consent of the Council, new contracts 
to be made for 5,000 more Enfield rifles, of which 320 
have arrived, and are included in the above enumera- 
tion. It is hoped that recent events may remove the 
British interdict against the export of arms and muni- 
tions of war, and enable us to receive our weapons. 
But, whether this takes place or not, I have earnestly 
to recommend the employment of our own domestic 
industry, and skill, in the production of rifles, by 
immediate contracts for not less than fifteen thousand 
stand of arms. And I trust Massachusetts will never 
again see the day, while aggression and wars are 
possible misfortunes, when she will be unprepared 
to put into the field, whenever the country calls, at 
least 25,000 well trained militia, full-armed for duty. 

The " Two Years Amendment^ 
I respectfully but urgently renew the recommenda- 
tion, that the initiative measures be taken for the 



14 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

repeal of the recent constitutional discrimination 
between citizens of alien and those of American 
birth, familiarly known as " The Two Years Amend- 
ment." 

Engaged shoulder to shoulder in one of the most 
tremendous strifes of history, for the maintenance 
and defence of the country, to which some of us were 
born, and which others adopted, there is no distinc- 
tion of duties, there has been none of patriotism 
and loyalty, and there should be none of rights 
between those two classes of citizens, whose hearts, 
torn by a common sorrow, beat responsive to the 
grand appeal of a common duty, and who gladly share 
a common danger, and strive in heroic competition for 
the garlands of glory, due not to the blood they 
inherit, but to the blood they shed and imperil. 

If for any reason, any persons have ever doubted 
the loyalty or distrusted the patriotism of this class of 
our citizens, let the events of the past year admonish 
them that such doubts and such distrust were not 
merited, and prompt them to concur, cordially and 
unasked, in the restoration of an equal franchise. 

Relief to Families of Volunteers. 
I respectfully recommend that the 222d chapter of 
the Acts of 1861 be so amended as to include in its 
provisions for the aid of the families of " the Volunteer 
Militia of this State," those companies which at an 
early period in the war, impatient of delay, and anxious 



d o 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 15 

for service, marched from the Commonwealth, and 
became attached to the regiments of New York, with 
whose volunteers they are consequently enumerated. 
Earnest, but unsuccessful efforts have been made to 
transfer them to Massachusetts corps. And I cannot 
doubt that the Legislature will gladly restore to these 
companies, composed of good soldiers, whose behavior 
has done credit to the State, the benefits of a statute 
whose equity reaches their case. 

I am apprised of certain other bodies of volunteer 
soldiers, w^ho were recruited by irregular means 
in this State, and a part of them assembled at a 
camp in Lowell, and others at a camp in Pitts- 
field, whose condition, in a similar way, appeals to 
the General Court for consideration. Although they 
were needlessly enlisted and brought together, con- 
trary to the orders and directions of the Department 
of War and the authority communicated to the Gov- 
ernor of this State, and to general orders promulgated 
from the Commonwealth head- quarters, issued at a 
time when we were straining the enlistment by raising 
eight infantry regiments, one cavalry regiment, and 
four artillery batteries at once, besides furnishing 
recruits to older regiments in the field; I am of 
opinion that the majority of these soldiers were misled 
into the belief that they were enlisting into regular 
regiments of Massachusetts Volunteers. They have 
marched, or will march, I believe, into actual service, 
when their conduct will doubtless entitle them to the 



16 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

honorable and sympathetic remembrances accorded by 
the State to citizens in other corps. I respectfully 
suggest an inquiry into the condition of these bodies ; 
and if no objections shall be found to exist, that the 
provisions of the Act be extended to their families, 
also, without delay. 

I am informed by the State Auditor that he cannot 
state the amount of aid given to families of volunteers, 
which the State is liable to refund, any further than 
the sum thus expended by the city of Boston, which 
he reports to be ^60,000, and he estimates that sum 
as not likely to be less than one-fourth of the total 
similar disbursement of all the cities and towns. It 
will be necessary for you to make special legislative 
provision for means to refund these disbursements. 

Service of Process on Volunteers. 
I beg to call to your attention the present condition 
of the laws with regard to the service of process in 
civil suits, in its relation to our volunteer forces. 
Each of the soldiers and sailors whom we have 
contributed to the armies and navies of the United 
States, is liable to be prosecuted to final judgment in 
a suit, the only notice of which to the defendant may 
have been by leaving a summons at his last and usual 
place of abode. It is, in my opinion, a legislative 
duty to provide further safeguards of notice to these 
men; and I respectfully present the subject for the 
consideration of the General Court, with the suggestion 



v^/y 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 17 

also to consider the expediency of providing that 
certain actions of tort shall not be brought against 
any volunteer, either in the military or naval service 
of the United States, during his absence from the 
Commonwealth on duty, under his present enlistment, 
and of modifying the statute of limitations for such 
cases. 

Congressional Districts. 

It will be necessary for additional legislation to be 
had relative to the election of Representatives in 
Congress. By the result of the last national census, 
it appears that for the next decennial period this 
Commonwealth will be entitled to but ten members 
of the lower House, losing one member from its 
present proportion. To this inevitable result of the 
increase of the great Western States in population, 
Massachusetts yields a cheerful acquiescence. She 
recognized from the beginning that her narrow limits 
and less fertile soil would prevent successful com- 
petition with her younger sisters in the great race for 
material strength ; but she still trusts to the intelli- 
gence and enterprise of her people to retain that 
degree of political power, which once she wielded by 
right also of predominance of population. 

I respectfully suggest the expediency of no longer 
insisting by statute that each representative in Con- 
gress shall be an inhabitant of the District from which 
he is elected. This is simply a restriction upon the 

3 



18 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

freedom of choice to be exercised by the various con- 
stituencies, who ought all to be treated by the law of 
Massachusetts as capable of selecting from among the 
citizens of the Commonwealth their best representa- 
tives. Our limited territory, and the homogeneous 
character and interests of our people, their intimacy of 
relations, their nearness to each other by means of 
their network of railways, the numbers whose legal 
habitations are in a town or city, while their daily 
business is from five to fifty or more miles remote 
therefrom, all tend to render it desirable that each 
constituency shall be unfettered in its freedom to 
select the wisest and ablest citizen at its command to 
sit in the National Council, especially in this grave 
emergency of our public affairs. 

And the law, as it stands, is subject to the grave 
objection of unconstitutionality. The eligibility of a 
person to an office must be determined by the consti- 
tution or the law under which the office was created, 
and by which its jurisdiction and functions are pre- 
scribed. The office of Representative in Congress is 
created by the constitution of the United States, by 
which also its powers, duties and incidents are deter- 
mined. And the constitution fixes the conditions of 
eligibility by requiring that "No person shall be a 
representative who shall not have attained the age of 
twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the 
United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an 
inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen." 



J"^ 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 19 

The question of the right of a State to add new condi- 
tions to those of the constitution, was examined in the 
thirty-fourth Congress by both houses, in the exercise 
of their respective powers to judge of the elections 
and qualifications of their own members. It was 
elaborately discussed and with great ability, and was 
settled in the negative by both houses, by decisive 
majorities ; and a senator and a representative whose 
elections were contested on the ground that they were 
ineligible by the constitution of the State from which 
they were elected, though not so by the constitution of 
the United States, retained their seats. Conspicuous 
instances have occurred in which members of Congress 
have served without objection, notwithstanding limita- 
tions of State law. It seems, therefore, well settled 
both by precedent and principle, that a State has no 
power to fix or define the qualifications of a senator 
or a representative in the Congress of the Union. 

Direct National Tax. 

By the Act of Congress of August fifth, in the past 
year, a direct annual tax of ^20,000,000 was laid 
upon the United States, to be assessed upon " the 
value of all lands and lots of ground, with their 
improvements and dwelling-houses." The proportion 
assigned to Massachusetts, of this tax, is ;^824,581.33. 
By the same Act it is provided that any State may 
assume and collect its quota, and pay the same into 
the National Treasury, it being lawful to use for this 



20 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

purpose the last or any subsequent valuation list 
made by authority of such State, for purposes of its 
own taxation ; and that any State which shall, on or 
before the second Tuesday of February of each year, 
give notice through its Governor or other proper 
officer, to the Secretary of the Federal Treasury, of its 
intention so to assume, collect, and pay its quota, 
shall, by way of compensation for the expenses of 
collection, be entitled to a deduction of fifteen per 
cent., according to the amount paid by it into the 
Federal Treasury " on or before the last day of June 
in the year to which such payment relates," "such year 
being regarded as commencing on the first day of 
April." Under date of November 29th last, a commu- 
nication was addressed to me by the Secretary of the 
Treasury, making inquiry "whether the authorities 
of Massachusetts will assume and pay the amount of 
direct tax apportioned to that State by the existing 
law, and also whether in case of any change in the 
law, by which a different and perhaps larger amount 
shall be apportioned to the State, the authorities will 
probably assume and pay it." To this communication 
I had the honor to reply, giving personal assurances 
in the affirmative ; and I now respectfully refer the 
subject to the immediate attention of the General 
Court, with the recommendation that at the earliest 
day I may be empowered officially to notify the Secre- 
tary of the intention of Massachusetts to assume the 
collection of her quota of this tax for the present 



J~C 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 21 

year, and that the necessary legislation may immedi- 
ately be had for the purposes of such collection. 

It is true that it may be said that the Act provides 
that the quota of any State may be satisfied in whole 
or in part by the release by such State of any liqui- 
dated claim against the United States, of equal 
amount, and that Massachusetts has claims against 
the United States, far exceeding her total quota, 
which claims will probably become liquidated before 
such quota becomes due. The release of a suitable 
portion of these claims may aiford a convenient 
method of insuring payment in season to secure to 
us the full deduction of fifteen per cent. ; but in 
this instance it is questionable whether we should 
rely upon the offset of such liquidated claims to 
relieve ourselves from the immediate collection of 
this tax, for the principle upon which the State 
bonds were issued, on which bonds the money was 
raised, the expenditure of which* on service of the 
United States constitutes the basis of such claims, 
was that all scrip or certificates of debt received in 
payment, should constitute a sinking fund for the 
redemption of the bonds so issued. As the annual 
tax of j$f20,000,000 on the States is a continuing 
imposition, not being limited by law to the present 
year, but being intended as a continuing source of 
revenue to the Federal Government, it is as well that 
we should assume and realize its burden at once, 



22 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

instead of shifting this single year's proportion of it 
to another generation. 

If the Commonwealth should see fit to assume the 
direct tax, and to pay it, (at the commutation allowed 
by Congress to the States,) the land and real estate 
of the people, as I understand the Act of Congress, 
will then and thereby be relieved. The payment will 
have been made out of its own Treasury ; and if the 
State should have a suificient surplus of funds, it might 
never be levied upon the people. Or, if otherwise, it 
would doubtless be competent for the State, — being 
authorized by the law " to assess, collect and pay " 
the direct tax " in its own way and manner," " and 
to use for this purpose " " any valuation list " last 
made, " for the purpose of State taxation," — to assess 
and collect the money in any way known to its own 
financial system. Thus Massachusetts might assess 
whatever sum it might need therefor, on all property 
usually assessed in State taxation, and thus distribute 
the burden more equally. 

Interest of Money. 
Thoroughly convinced that the people of this Com- 
monwealth are competent to make their own contracts 
without the guardianship of the State, I urge upon 
you a modification of the usury laws. The evils of 
our present system are of the most serious character. 
An immense amount of capital is yearly sent to other 
States for investment where higher interest is allowed, 



^-7 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. * 23 

while our citizens are daily induced to violate laws 
which they cannot respect. Thus in an ineffectual 
endeavor to protect men in making their contracts, 
we lose our capital, cripple our business, teach the 
people to be cunning and dishonest, and bring the 
laws of the State into contempt. That six per cent, 
is the exact value of money no one will pretend, 
while the National Government pays seven and three 
tenths for it, and the market rate varies from three to 
twenty-four per cent, according to the demand. The 
present laws bear severely upon borrowers, for the 
lenders charge for the risk they run in violating the 
law. It would be wiser to legislate capital into our 
own borders, allow men to make their own bargains, 
provided they act honestly, and to encourage direct and 
open-handed action, by laws commanding respect. 

Baiihing. 
The report of the Bank Commissioners will exhibit 
the condition of the banks of the Commonwealth. I 
renew my suggestions of last year that a conservative 
course of legislation is best for our banking system, 
and that radical changes should be ado[)ted with 
caution, and not without mature consideration. I 
commend to your attention the able report of the 
Commissioners, and especially its suggestions in regard 
to institutions for savings. Their history, and a 
mass of instructive statistics, are comprised in the 
report. The facts stated, strikingly illustrate the 



24 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

industrial power and thrift of our people. And the 
wisdom which began these institutions for the benefit 
of those desiring to' invest and accumulate their small 
savings, will, I doubt not, watch over them, regulate 
their management, and make them an element of 
abiding strength in the State. 

A bill reported by the Committee on Banks and 
Banking, at a late hour in the regular session of last 
year, " to authorize towns and cities to receive and 
invest savings," was, at the request of the Committee, 
printed and referred to the present General Court. 
The scheme is explained and eloquently enforced in 
the Sixth Annual Report of the Insurance Commis- 
sioners on Loan Fund Associations, prepared for the 
present Legislature. 

The recommendations emanating from the Secretary 
of the United States Treasury, involving a general 
scheme for a national currency of Treasury scrip, or 
notes taking the place of the issues of the banks incor- 
porated by the States, demand the attentive and critical 
examination of all persons concerned in finance. 

The adoption of an exclusive national currency, 
having many apparent advantages, would probably 
involve an important change in the revenues of this 
Commonwealth by necessitating a repeal of the bank 
tax from which so large a part of it is derived. And 
it may be questioned how far, at the present moment, 
the banks of the northern Atlantic cities will deem it 
reasonably practicable to carry the heavy loans with 



v^-y 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 25 

which they accommodate the Government of the 
Union, and in addition thereto, to retire their own 
circulation, receiving from the Federal Government 
its own notes for a new medium of circulation, 
for which, of course, they must pledge adequate 
security. 

The argument upon a subject covering so many 
intricate questions of a practical science so abstruse, 
and as a science so incomplete, as that of banking, 
could not be fitly treated on an occasion like tliis. 
Nor can I avoid the confession that as yet I do 
not perceive the way open to a clearly satisfactory 
opinion in regard to it. But, since the share this 
Legislature may have, if it chooses, in educating 
the public opinion, and assisting the judgment of 
Congress, is not inconsiderable, I take the liberty 
of bringing it prominently before the mind of the 
General Court. 

The Troy and Greenfield Railroad. 
By chapter 202 of the Acts of 1860, the Common- 
wealth appropriated " a loan of the State credit, to 
enable the Troy and Greenfield Eailroad Company to 
construct the Hoosac Tunnel." In this Act, of the 
;?2,000,000 loan, ^650,000 is appropriated to the 
completion of the railroad east of the mountain. The 
State does not undertake to build this railroad, nor 
to' determine the precise manner in which it shall 
be constructed. The only specific thing required by 



26 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

the law is, that " the rails shall weigh not less 
than fifty-six pounds to the lineal yard." And the 
provision is in general terms, that " no expendi- 
tures shall be required merely for the purposes of 
ornament, hut the work shall he suhstantially per- 
formedr The ^650,000 is to be loaned towards " the 
whole of the graduation, masonry, bridging and super- 
structure of the unfinished portion of the road east of 
the Tunnel." And the scrip is to " be delivered on 
the road, in the proportion the value of the work done, 
bears to the estimated cost of the whole work and 
materials required on the portion of the road afore- 
said." The issue of scrip is made dependent on the 
certificate of the State Engineer, who " shall monthly, 
immediately after the first day of each month, estimate 
the proportion which the work done upon the road 
since the preceding estimate, bears to the whole of the 
work required to be done in the graduation, masonry, 
bridging, and superstructure of said railroad east of 
the Hoosac Tunnel." It becomes, therefore, the duty 
of * the engineer to make the following inquiries, 
monthly, viz. : — 

How much work remains to be done and material 
to be furnished in order to complete this piece of road 
in a substantial manner ? 

How much has been done during the last month 
for which I am now making an estimate'? 

How much of the State loan of ^^65 0,000 remains 
to be advanced '? 



J-y 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 27 

A proportion stated on these principles will ascer- 
tain the amount of the monthly issue for which the 
Engineer is to make his certificate. 

Of this whole amount (^650,000) #455,235.92 has 
been advanced, leaving #194,764.08. In the month 
of July last the contractors on the road suspended 
work, and have not resumed it ; so that no issue 
since that made on the certificate of July, has been 
required. This suspension was in consequence of the 
dissatisfaction of the contractors with the finding of 
the Engineer, by which he estimated the cost of 
finishing the road in a substantial manner, at a sum 
larger than that of the previous Engineer. He 
included therein the sum of #97,035 for finishing the 
bridges, taking out slopes which he found too steep, 
filling up trestle-work, protecting the banks from 
the rivers, &c. ; which had not been previously 
included in the estimate. I do not understand that 
any question was made as to the correctness of this 
estimate in its amount ; but it was denied that these 
items should have been reckoned into the account' at 
all. It was contended that the road could be put 
into running order and would be run a long time 
before this work would need to be done; and that 
economy required the early running of the road, 
after which, from the earnings of the road these things 
could be done and paid for. Whether this was true 
or not, was not deemed to be a question for the 
State authorities ; while it was a very proper one for 



28 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

a railroad company, constructing its road, and having 
the means to build its stations, and to buy its rolling 
stock, equipments, &c. But, if the work in question 
was necessary to the completion of the road in a sub- 
stantial manner, it was not seen how the State scrip 
could be issued upon any expectation of what might 
be done in the future, but only on the fact of what had 
been done already. It was the duty of the Engineer to 
require the road to be ordinarily well built, according 
to the existing standard of good work in similar loca- 
tions, constructed by competent engineers at the pre- 
sent day. And the governor had no right to issue scrip 
without the Engineer's certificate. The opinions of the 
Engineer being called in question, it was deemed proper 
to subject them to careful examination ; since if he was 
found to be mistaken, and unwilling to correct them, 
another Engineer could be appointed in his stead. To 
my own mind the questions were entirely new. They 
pertained to the science of civil engineering applied to 
the construction of railways; — and could be best 
answered by those skilled and practiced in that knowl- 
edge. Accordingly, a large number of experienced 
and skilful railway engineers, managers, and experts, 
were summoned by the Governor and Council, exam- 
ined by them, and by the present State Engineer and 
his predecessor. Their testimony confirmed the 
opinion of the State Engineer. The testimony and 
the decision given by the Governor, both phonograph- 
ically reported and in print, I have the honor to lay 



<^ o 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 29. 

before the General Court, with a similar report of a 
prior investigation before a committee of three 
members of the Council. 

No question arose relating to the tunnel, but the 
work upon the tunnel, as well as upon the road east 
of it, was discontinued by the contractors. It is 
proper to observe that if the decision of the Governor 
is subject to any criticism, it must be borne by him 
alone, since no question was reached proper to be 
submitted to a vote of the Council. 

A large quantity of railway iron included by the 
Engineer in his estimate, and therefore covered by the 
scrip issued on his certificate of June last, it is now 
alleged had not been delivered to the company ; and it 
is now claimed by carriers, under their lien for freight, 
and is under attachment in three suits for its purchase 
money. The suits are pending, and the interests 
of the Commonwealth are under the care of the 
Attorney- General. 

I regretted encountering any questions connected 
with this subject. It has involved a great deal of 
interest and feeling, and has largely entered into the 
legislation and somewhat into the politics of the State. 
The question which in fact arose, however, was emi- 
nently and simply a practical one ; aftd it was necessary 
to be governed by the law as the legislature had made 
it, and by the facts as they were found to exist. The 
subject is now before the General Court, where the 
law will receive alteration if it is found to requii-e 



30 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

any. The suspension of the work on the railway, it 
is thought by many, will cause injury to the road, by 
means of the action of the frost and freshets, while it 
remains incomplete. This point will require your 
early attention. As the law now stands, the State 
authorities cannot interfere; and I understand the 
railway company does not. 

It becomes important for the General Court to 
decide what measures, if any, are necessary to protect 
the interests of the Commonwealth in a public work 
to which it has already loaned its scrip to the amount 
of ^725,388.88, and Jias paid up to October, 1861, 
interest to the amount of ^18,093.34. The grand 
enterprise of tunnelling the mountain must either be 
abandoned or suspended, or the Commonwealth must 
take the business in hand, and adopting a policy at 
once simple, plain, effectual, and decisive, put it beyond 
such contingencies, and ensure both economy and 
success. 

For the present condition of the road and tunnel, 
and the progress of the work, or both, I refer the 
General Court to a recent communication from, the 
State Engineer, which contains the most authentic 
and compact statement in my power to impart. 

The following table exhibits the amounts of State 
scrip loaned to the road from the time of the first issue, 
of which amount it will be observed that more than 
^250,000 have been advanced during the last year. 



o 



1862.] 


SENATE— No. 1. 


31 


Sterling Scrip 


issued : — 




Oct. 6, 1858, 51 Certificates, 1—51, . . 


£22,500 


Oct. 4, 1859, 26 


52—77,. . 


11,200 


Jan. 3, 1860, 25 


78-102, . . 


11,300 


Mar. 1, 1860, 16 


103-118,. . 


6,800 


Oct. 8, 1860, 36 


" 119-154,. . 


. 18,000 


Dec. 12, 1860, 53 


155-207,. . 


26,500 


Jan. 5, 1861, 15 


" 208-222, . . 


7,500 


Feb. 18, 1861, U 


223-236, . . 


. 5,800 


Mar. 7, 1861, 11 


237-247, . . 


4,900 




£114,500 


At par, 


. 


. $508,888 88 


Federal Money Scrip issued : — 




May 8, 1861, 27 Certificates, 1—27, . $? 


5,500 00 


June 27, 1861, 75 


28-102, . 37,500 00 


July 12, 1861, 94 


« 103-196, . 93,500 00 






'>1 n '100 00 








$725,388 88 



And in addition to this sum, is to be computed also 
scrip to the amount of ^^200,000, issued on May 4th, 
1860, to the owners of the Southern Vermont Railroad 
for the purchase of the road. 



Harbors and Flats. 
I had the honor, in addressing the General Court 
of 1861, to allude to the duty of watchfully guarding 
the Harbor of Boston against injury by encroachments, 
or by misuse of its flats and misdirection of its water. 
And I desire, at this time, in a more emphatic and 
direct manner, to invoke the attention of the Legisla- 
ture to the subject of the preservation and improve- 



32 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

ment not only of the harbor of Boston, but of all the 
harbors of the Commonwealth. 

The proprietary rights of the Commonwealth in the 
soil of the sea lying within its dominion, limited 
only by the Colonial ordinance of 1647, — imparting 
•the right to the shore owners to extend one hundred 
rods, or to the channel, — is clear. Its title is that 
by virtue of which it owns all the lands within its 
bounds, whether under water, or above water, not 
granted away. The Legislature has the full title 
and the full power to control this property. The 
right to dispose of all flats thus belonging to the 
Commonwealth, is vested in the Legislature. The 
Commonwealth may, by the acts and at the dis- 
cretion of the Legislature, cause or ]3ermit them to 
be excavated, or embanked, or otherwise disposed of. 
It may grant and convey them to others, limited, 
whether as to time, person, quantity, reason or con- 
sideration pecuniary or otherwise, only by its sense 
and judgment of the public welfare, in the exercise of 
its own sound, constitutional discretion. But, while 
I perceive no limit to the power of the Legislature to 
manage and dispose of these public lands, as well as 
any other public property, save that prescribed by its 
own judgment and discretion, — nevertheless, the pre- 
servation of all our harbors is a public trust of such 
peremptory necessity and such immeasurable impor- 
tance, not merely to the seaport towns, but to the 
convenience, happiness, and prosperity of all the 



^ 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 



33 



people, and the wealth and growth of every town and 
section, inland as well as seaboard,— that this para- 
mount obligation should always be first regarded in 
. the disposition and management of the flats, espe- 
cially when it is considered that the interests of 
private individuals lead to continued encroachments, 
on the tide-water. 

I respectfully suggest to the General Court the 
consideration of some general and systematic provision 
for the protection and preservation of all the propri- 
etary rights of the Commonwealth in flats, or lands 
under the sea; and also the establishment of a careful, 
scientific and economical system for regulating the 
disposition of any such property whether by the 
extension of private wharves or otherwise, so as to 
avoid dangerous invasion of public interests by 
encroachment, and trespasses, and inadvertent grants ; 
and also for surveying such flats, and offering them 
for sale, where it is proper to sell them, under appro- 
priate restrictions and conditions ; and providing also 
for the building of wet docks, and the making of 
other important harbor improvements, — to which 
purposes the net proceeds realized by the Common- 
wealth from the sales of such flats and lands should 
be dedicated. 

In these suggestions, I do but repeat the ideas, 
opinions, warnings, and advice of many most eminent 
jurists, civil engineers, and far-sighted citizens, who 
have heretofore reported to the Legislature, in the 



34 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

capacity of commissioners of the Commonwealth and 
of committees of the General Court. 

Nothing should be omitted to give unity and sim- 
plicity of plan and direction to any interest of which 
the Commonwealth has the proper oversight. And 
in all that it does, it ought to study the resources of 
the wealth and power of the people, and the method 
of their best development, keeping in constant view, 
both the individual welfare of the citizen, and the 
strength, influence and renown of the State. 

Public Institutions. 
The number of inmates of the various penal, re- 
formatory, sanitary and eleemosynary Institutions, 
under the management of the Commonwealth, at the 
present time, is four thousand five hundred and thirty- 
two. The annual cost of their support to the State is 
more than ^^400,000, exclusive of the interest upon 
personal and real estate in occupancy, which is esti- 
mated to have cost at least j^800,000. The number of 
officials attached to these institutions is not far from 
three hundred, to whom there is paid annually in 
salaries the sum of ^75,000 in addition to board. 
There are also fifty-one inspectors and trustees, to 
whom is annually paid, in addition to contingent 
expenses and travel, the sum of seven thousand dollars. 
Thus it appears that an average of one official is 
employed for the care of every fifteen inmates, and one 
inspector for every ninety persons. 



c s 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 35 

Excluding the cost of the support of the inmates of 
the State Prison, which institution is self-supporting, 
it follows that the average cost of maintaining the 
remaining number, is about one hundred dollars per 
annum, or two dollars a week, for each inmate. 

The State Prison, with five hundred and fifty 
inmates, is in good condition, and its affairs are well 
managed. Its whole expenditure during the past 
year has been defrayed by the labor of the convicts. 

The State Reform School, at Westborough, now 
numbers two hundred and sixty inmates, supported 
during the past year by an outlay of j$f47,634, of 
which ^10,068 is charged for salaries. The boys 
are employed in the work of the farm, and the 
house, and in the manufacture of chairs and shoes. 
They appear to be healthy, contented, and cheerful, 
and the duties of the superintendent who was 
appointed at the commencement of the last year, 
have been discharged so as to show a manifest im- 
provement in the discipline and management of the 
Institution. I commend to your consideration the 
report of the superintendent, and especially his sug- 
gestion as to the obstacles in the way of making the 
Institution productive of the highest good, where 
young and comparatively guiltless youth, are necessa- 
rily exposed to the contagion of evil example from 
those older and more reckless in crime. 

The Reform School Ship, with its one hundred and 
fifteen boys, mostly from the Westborough Reform 



36 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

School, has, during the past year, developed the wis- 
dom of the experiment, and I trust that further expe- 
rience will confirm the entire practicability and use- 
fulness of this novel method of rescuing the waifs 
of human society from the vortex of crime and dissi- 
pation to which they are exposed, and placing them 
at once in the track of usefulness and honor. 

The number of patients at the Institution for the 
Insane at Worcester is three hundred and thirty-one, 
at Taunton four hundred and twenty-eight, and at 
Northampton three hundred and fifteen, — in all one 
thousand and seventy-four ; and the aggregate cost of 
their support is ^180,000. At Taunton the number 
of patients is greatly in excess of proper accommo- 
dations, and it is found necessary to abandon in 
great measure that appropriate classification on which 
improvement and cure so essentially depend. 

The three almshouses and the hospital at Rainsford 
Island contain at present two thousand three hundred 
and thirty-nine inmates, and these institutions are 
supported at a cost of ^150,000 annually. 

At Monson, on the day of a recent visit, there were 
six hundred and forty inmates, of whom four hundred 
and fifty-seven were children under fifteen years of 
age. Of this latter class, one hundred and sixty had 
been recently transferred from the almshouses at 
Tewksbury and Bridgewater ; which removal had 
involved, in many cases, a separation of families 
painful to contemplate. The alleged reason for such 



/^ 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 37 

transfer, which has been customary since the Monson 
Almshouse was erected, is the better or more conve- 
nient educational facilities provided at the Monson 
institution ; but whatever may be the reason, the fact 
itself suggests to every thoughtful mind, that such a 
system, based upon the severance of so many domestic 
ties, must be radically wrong, not only in the present, 
but in its future results upon old and young alike. 

By a communication, which I herewith transmit, 
addressed to me by the foreman of a recent grand jury 
in Middlesex County, you will perceive that a present- 
ment has been made of the Almshouse at Tewksbury 
for insecurity in its construction and arrangement, and 
I commend the subject to your attention. 

The E-ainsford Island Hospital seems to be under 
good management, but its benefits are almost exclu- 
sively enjoyed by the city of Boston. The Common- 
wealth has already expended more than ^60.000 on 
the buildings connected with the institution, while its 
title to the land is believed to be not fully established. 

The Industrial School for Girls, at Lancaster, the 
most recent of our reformatory institutions, has not 
reached that period in its history which would justify 
the statement that the experiment of its establish- 
ment is a success. But it is one of the most inter- 
esting of all our charities. The annual expenses of 
the institution are about ^12,000. The number of 
inmates at present is one hundred and fifty, who 
are divided into five families, each occupying a sepa- 



38 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

rate building under the immediate charge of a matron 
and assistant, and the whole establishment is under 
the control and direction of a superintendent. 

Some persons experienced in the conduct of refor- 
matory institutions for the male sex, have distrusted 
the success of this institution, in accomplishing the 
purpose for which it was designed. Present circum- 
stances are certainly favorable for a fair test of the 
question, but in the absence of precedents, and 
examples for comparison, time alone must determine. 
I believe it is capable of great results ; that the family 
system there adopted is correct in principle ; and that 
its reforming power has already been manifested. 

The bounty of the State, which appropriates 
^10,000 annually for the education and support of 
the deaf mutes of this Commonwealth, was shared, 
the past year, by about eighty children of this 
unfortunate class. They are well and wisely cared 
for, and in addition to the rudiments of a common 
school education, both males and females are gradu- 
ated with a knowledge of some useful trade or handi- 
craft, by which to gain an honest livelihood. 

The number of inmates of the Institution for the 
Blind averages from one hundred and ten to one hun- 
dred and twenty, of whom from seventy to eighty are 
placed there by the authorities of the Commonwealth, 
as a public charge. The policy of the Institution is 
to receive all proper applicants, train them for some 
occupation, and then find them opportunity to use 



6>6' 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 89 

profitably whatever skill they may have acquired. 
About twenty-five blind adults are, on the average, 
employed at the Institution, on wages. Many others 
are established in country towns, earning a living by 
some handicraft. Very many become teachers of 
music. And even such as are returned to their 
families, and not sent into the world for a livelihood, 
are not only more cultivated, mentally, than they 
would have been without the training they received 
there, but more active, also, and industrious. The 
general effect of the Institution, especially by the 
sending into the community of so many blind persons 
trained to work, is to stimulate all the blind, and 
lift them out of the class of the idle and unprofitable ; 
and its example has done much to encourage similar 
undertakings in other States and countries. 

At the Institution for Idiots, the average number is 
about eighty, and of these, Massachusetts furnishes 
about fifty, all of them indigent. To some persons, 
misled by the name of school, the results of the Insti- 
tution may not correspond with their unreasonable 
expectations that idiots, as a class, can by any process 
of discipline, be transformed into persons of average or 
superior intelligence. But the general effect of the 
Institution is really gratifying. All its inmates are 
bettered in some way ; a few are kept from sinking 
into the class of idiots for life, for whom such a fate 
would otherwise have been inevitable ; and the effects 
of culture and instruction are the same here as else- 



40 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

where, though from the nature of the material they 
are less obvious ; the trained and cultivated idiot is 
quiet, docile, and industrious, while the idiot who is 
neglected, tends surely to brutishness. Industrious 
habits are enforced as the desirable object, rather than 
skill in school exercises. Trades have been intro- 
duced. Many girls are prepared for a considerable 
degree of usefulness, as housemaids, most of whom 
would certainly have been degraded and ruined if left 
outside the Institution, of which certainty the condi- 
tion of idiot women in the State almshouses affords 
an illustration ; several boys and girls have made such 
progress, that they are now capable of being useful in 
farm labor or domestic work, if proper families could 
be found in which they could be placed ; and generally 
society has been bettered by this Institution, for it 
withdraws from the community the presence of many, 
who, being themselves abandoned and brutalized, 
would otherwise, by an invariable law of nature, have 
tended to demoralize society around them. 

To these institutions and the support of the 
inmates, for which the people without regret devote 
nearly half a million of dollars annually, must be 
added, in the category of penal establishments, the 
several houses of correction. These, however, are 
supported and controlled by the counties. But it is 
a consideration I cannot avoid mentioning, that, while 
a person for the same offence, may, in a large number 
of cases, be sentenced in the discretion of the courts 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 41 

to the State Prison, or to a house of correction or a 
jail, he will only in the first alternative be subject to 
a prison discipline of which the State under whose 
laws he is condemned, maintains the oversight. Thus 
prison discipline as a science, gains nothing from all 
the mass of experience of which these prisons are the 
repositories, nor does any thing learned at one of 
them, accrue to the benefit of the others. 

I had proposed, in assuming these official duties for 
the first time, to devote myself to careful observation 
of our system of managing and dealing with the 
various exceptional classes, whether of crime, poverty, 
or misfortune. But I have not been able to do so. 
Commanding duties have left time only for the most 
superficial examination, and for but little and rude 
reflection. 

I am satisfied, however, that with all the good these 
institutions accomplish, and all the sufiering and evil 
they prevent, they will require in the future a more 
systematic control. The annual visits of the governor 
and council are of but slight advantage. They give, 
and can give, no intelligent direction. They can only 
help prevent or cure flagrant abuses. But where is the 
intelligent, educated body of experts and learned 
philanthropists and practical thinkers, to supervise 
this mass of human nature, in which the laws of 
either physical or moral being, or of social order, are 
broken, or awry \ Who is there to analyze and sift 
out the knowledge that lies buried in the mass of 



42 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

statistics which contain the dry bones of each year's 
history? Who knows, beyond a certain range, 
whether the administration of all these institutions is 
really going right or wrong, — having reference to the 
advancement of society, and the real good of its 
unfortunate members ? 

There ought to be some person or board, whose 
business it should be to observe carefully, constantly, 
critically, with heart, mind, and eye ; to compare from 
year to year what is done here and what is done else- 
where ; to think out, and write out the scientific and 
practical directions of this comparative observation 
and experience, for the consideration of the people and 
the government. 

I do not speak in the spirit of criticism, but simply 
of conservatism. I believe in knowledge and its uses ; 
and that it does not come by accident or neglect. 
These public institutions, are, so far as I have been 
able to observe, better than I had supposed. We are 
fortunate in those 'who preside over them, and I 
cannot too thankfully applaud the wisdom and 
humanity which especially distinguish the administra- 
tion of our retreats for the Insane. There, as in the 
School for the instruction of Idiots at South Boston, 
which is patronized by the State, we find the fruits of 
patience, learning, and humanity; and the saddest 
inflictions endured by our poor human nature, we see 
alleviated by the wise and kind intelligence of the 
"leech," who has learned the art, by which he can 



/'/ 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 43 

" minister to a mind diseased, 
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, 
Eaze out the written troubles of the brain." 



I am obliged, however, to confess that the statutes 
of the Commonwealth regarding the Insane, and the 
legal proceedings to be had for inquiring into and 
adjudicating upon cases of insanity, and regulating 
admissions into the State hospitals, and concerning 
insane prisoners, are defective by reason of incom- 
pleteness, inconsistencies, and contradictions, needing 
thorough redrafting, simplification, abridgment, and 
alteration, without which they must remain behind 
both the humanity and the intelligence of the age. 
In revising the General Statutes these laws, passed at 
diiferent times, with different puposes, and without 
systematic method, were brought together, but were 
not amended. The business of the revision was not 
thought to include that of amending ; but simply of 
arranging the statutes as they were found; and therefore 
in this instance the revision serves to make more 
apparent the need of new legislation. 

Criminal Costs and Procedure. 

The subject of criminal costs, which has recently 
attracted especial attention, still challenges our care. 
They are still excessive, owing, in part, to the fact of 
the freedom with which prosecutions of no public 
utility may be promoted, and in part to the character 



44 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

of criminal proceedings. The payment of trial justices 
by salary, requiring all their fees to be paid into the 
public treasury, the bringing the subject home more 
nearly to the people, by charging the costs of prose- 
cuting minor offences upon the towns instead of the 
counties, and practicing greater care in the creation of 
new and artificial offences, somewhat abundant in 
modern legislation, would all tend to diminish costs 
by limiting prosecutions. And a reform in our crim- 
inal pleadings and procedure might well be inaugu- 
rated, which, by simplifying the pleadings, reducing the 
opportunities to criminals of escape through technical 
and formal accidents, and discouraging frivolous ex- 
ceptions, would prevent mistakes, expedite judgments, 
and promote justice. It would be interesting, and if 
time would permit me, it would be instructive, to 
expose some of the peculiar infelicities of the ancient 
methods of criminal pleading ; from which the statute 
commonly known as " Lord Campbell's Act," — since 
substantially adopted in Pennsylvania, and some of 
the provisions of which were anticipated here — 
extricated the English practice some ten years ago. 
These illustrations, however, would readily occur to 
an intelligent committee in exploring our system and 
its operation. I respectfully recommend the investi- 
gation, with the single remark that many of the 
decisions, which, passing into precedents, have con- 
trolled the judicial mind, seem to mark the struggles 
of humanity in the hearts of the judges to escape the 



^J 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 45 

consequences of cniel and sanguinary penal laws. 
What society needs is parental and not tyrannical 
government, — firm, serene, and just, executing judg- 
ment without long delays, and with no uncertain aim, 
with penalties merciful and proportionate. 

The Death Penalty. 
I deplore the presence of the penalty of death 
still lingering on the statute-book of Massachusetts. 
Gradually receding in civilized legislation, as need- 
less and dangerous, corrupting to some persons, and 
shocking to others, years of study and reflection 
confirm the opinion that it must certainly disappear 
from the category of penalties inflicted by the best 
ordered and most refined commonwealths. A natural 
method to the wild justice of the ruder forms and 
stages of society, — a hard necessity sometimes in the 
code of war, — it erects the gallows in a community 
like ours, only as a horrid spectacle, scaring the 
imagination and haunting the dreams of the sensi- 
tive; an intrusive reminiscence of more barbarous 
times; while it suggests to the hardened in crime 
only another disease, by which nature may one day 
pay its inevitable debt to mortality. 

Educaiion and Schools. 
In casting our eyes over the resources, the industry, 
and the institutions of the State, we are struck by the 
idea of permanence, intelligence, and power they, in 



46 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

their combination, suggest. Nor is there any circum- 
stance more worthy our admiration than the sturdy 
and triumphant will, with which, in spite of all the 
distractions of extraordinary military necessities, the 
people and their children stand by their schools, 
colleges, and all the instrumentalities of learning. In 
Massachusetts I am advised that the Teachers' Insti- 
tutes were never better attended ; that the interest in 
our common schools was never more genuine; and 
that this is true also of other States whose people, like 
our own, have been most ready to meet the calls of 
war. 

Let us never forget our nurseries of learning, the 
strength, the solace, the inspiration of a people. Rich 
with the spoils of thought, great in ideas, powerful by 
the possession of knowledge, and the education of the 
mind, happy in the possession of fields no enemy can 
dispute, and treasures no ravage can destroy — such a 
people, in the fear of God and the love of man, are 
immortal as the nature they inherit, and grand as 
their destiny. 

The Normal Schools. 
The annual appropriation for our four Normal 
Schools, of j^l4,500, is found inadequate for their 
actual wants. The school fund is increased already by 
more than fifty thousand dollars, from proceeds of the 
Back Bay Lands, one-half of the income of which, or 
;^1,500, if appropriated to these schools, would relieve 



^f 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 47 

their wants, and it is, with the concurrence of the 
Secretary of the Board of Education, respectfully 
recommended to be done. 

Marriage and Divorce. 

I desire most respectfully to renew a recommenda- 
tion which I had the honor to make to the Legislature 
of the past year, for such a modification of our laws 
touching marriage and divorce as shall lodge in some 
tribunal, the power to mitigate the penalty of celibacy 
as a consequence of divorce, whatever may have been 
the cause of the dissolution of the marriage. This 
penalty is inflicted under certain circumstances as a 
consequence of a civil adjudication, in which the rules 
of procedure essentially differ from those of a criminal 
trial. So long as human instincts and passions con- 
tinue, I believe that this infliction as a consequence of 
civil proceedings for divorce, without leaving a hope 
for its ultimate remission either by the same tribunal 
by which it was awarded or by some other, is detri- 
mental to the good morals of the community, and 
discreditable to our knowledge of human nature. 

Board of Health. 

The Boston Sanitary Association, the American 
Statistical Association, and the Massachusetts Medical 
Society, have all heretofore petitioned the General 
Court to establish " a Board of Health and Vital 
Statistics." The subject stands referred to the present 



48 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

Legislature, and the general views of the petitioners, 
with many illustrations of fnct and reasoning, are 
clearly set forth in the petition of the Boston Sanitary 
Association, printed with House Documents of 1861, 
[House Doc, 112,] It was ably supported by the 
report of the joint committee to which it was referred, 
which deserves the perusal of every legislator of the 
Commonwealth, for its practical and comprehensive 
wisdom ; and I earnestly hope its views may be 
thoroughly examined, and its objects finally approved 
by the General Court. 

The Rhode Island Boundary/. 
I transmit to the General Court, the final decree of 
the Supreme Court of the United States, in the suit 
between this Commonwealth and the State of Rhode 
Island ; terminating the* ancient controversy of boun- 
dary, now thereby adjusted on the basis of the conven- 
tional line, conformably to the agreement of the 
parties litigant. And I trust nothing will hereafter 
arise to disturb their mutual peace, and that both the 
States wdll be found beneficent and impartial govern- 
ments by those citizens each has acquired from the 
other. 

The Concord and Sudhury Meadoivs. 
I shall transmit also the report of Daniel W. Alvord, 
Charles Storrow, and J. Herbert Shedd, appointed 
Commissioners under the 154th chapter of the Acts of 



yo 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 49 

1861, to conduct certain surveys and experiments on 
the Concord River, and to report thereon. The 
Commission seems to have been executed with 
great labor and care. Its report is in full detail, 
illustrated by an ample map, and plans, — and will, I 
think, be found a complete and satisfactory repository 
of the. scientific truth sought through its agency. 

The conduct of the investigation required the con- 
stant services of many persons employed to observe its 
experiments, and otherwise to aid tlie Commissioners. 
Those employed were all, or generally, persons of 
humble means, working at low daily wages, and unable 
to maintain themselves unless paid at brief intervals. 
By some inadvertence no appropriation was made to 
meet these expenses, and it was only after the Com- 
missioners had incurred them to considerable extent, 
that the points came to my attention. The practical 
question then arose, shall these accounts be laid over 
until another session of the General Court, to the great 
injury of those employed, and the work of the Commis- 
sion' be suspended, to the great injury and disappoint- 
ment of all the parties interested in the Meadow and 
Dam controversy, for want of the means to pay them \ 

With the consent of the Council I decided not to 
permit such a disaster, and assumed the responsibility 
of meeting these necessary current expenses out of the 
" Emergency Fund," and the warrants drawn for that 
purpose amount in all to the sum of ^2,481.49. 



50 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

The accounts were first examined by a committee 
of the Council, and proved reasonable in their 
judgment, as well as that of the Commissioners. 

Pursuant to the provisions of the same Act, the 
Commissioners awarded damages in favor of three 
several parties claiming them, to the amount of 
^4,378.87. 

Agriculture. 

The agriculturil interests of the Commonwealth 
have been highly prospered during the past year. 
Their products are estimated as exceeding thirty-two 
millions of dollars. The season was propitious and 
the crops with few exceptions were abundant ■ and 
profitable. 

The Exhibitions of the Agricultural Societies as a 
whole, were more complete and attractive than ever 
before, while the interest manifested in them by the 
large attendance of people, was never excelled. 
Under the encouragement of the Commonwealth, the 
smaller and feebler societies are gradually placing 
themselves upon a more permanent and useful basis, 
and it is believed that if the present fostering care is 
continued, they will, within a reasonable length of 
time, attain a degree of strength and prosperity 
which will make them self-sustaining and self-reliant. 
Notwithstanding the poverty of her soil, in contrast 
with that of some of her sister States, the agricultural 
interest of Massachusetts is one of the most important; 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 51 

and the great and rapid development of her resources, 
through the growmg intelligence of her husbandmen, 
as shown in recent years by the increase of farm 
crops, the improvement in the breeds of domestic 
animals, the production and culture of new varieties 
of fruits, all confirm the wisdom of that legislation 
which has encouraged the formation of societies for 
Agricultural improvement, by the bounty of the 
State. 

Many additions have been made to the State Cab- 
inet during the year, and the interest manifested in it 
by the large and increasing number of visitors from 
day to day, shows clearly the practical value of the 
collection in developing a fuller appreciation and 
knowledge of the Natural History of the Common- 
wealth. 

The State Board of Agriculture, sensible of the 
importance of having the elements of agriculture 
taught in our common schools, made arrangements 
with Messrs. George B. Emerson, and Charles L. Flint, 
to prepare a text-book or Manual of Agriculture, 
comprising and presenting in an elementary way the 
principles and practice of this art, including the com- 
position of soils, and manures, the preparation of 
lands, the culture of special crops, the principles of 
rotation of crops, the diseases and enemies of growing 
plants, the choice and management of farm stock, and 
the general economy of the Farm. This work has 
been executed so as to meet the approbation of the 



52 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

Board, and their recommendation of it as adapted for 
use in the schools of the Commonwealth. I trust it 
will serve to help increase an intelligent interest in 
farming, and develop the productiveness of this 
fundamental pursuit of industry. 

An undue proportion of the soil of our Common- 
wealth is unused for any profitable purpose. This is 
in part owing to following the local traditions, instead 
of studying the secrets of nature, and extracting her 
truth. Much land now w^asted might be used for the 
growth of wood and timber, yielding a crop once in 
twenty or thirty years, without much labor in its 
care ; and farms now of little profit might become 
profitable by the proper methods of adaptation, and 
the skill to diversify their cultivation. Fruits, vines, 
and various branches of gardening, may be largely 
cultivated by those whose main pursuits are in-doors 
and sedentary. And might not the study of nature 
awaken a taste for horticulture, and the like, in our 
boys and girls at school, the results of which will be 
seen, not alone in the larger business of regular 
farming, but in a thousand humbler ways, adorning 
the village, the wayside, and the cottage home with 
beauty, giving freshness to many jaded minds, besides 
increase of health, industry, and wealth ? 

Flowage. 
The subject of flowing our low lands and meadows 
under the operation of the "Mill Act," has also 



7^ 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 53 

engaged the attention of the Board of Agriculture. 
Rights ah'eady acquired thereunder are not subject 
to disturbance by its modification, or repeal, but in 
the belief that the Act has long outlived its usefulness, 
I respectfully recommend its consideration to the 
Legislature. 

The tendency of thrift, economy, and sound policy 
is towards general and systematic drainage, not 
towards the drowning of the most valuable lands. 
Rude and poor farming is the usual lot of pioneers. 
It was true of those of New England. They gradually 
moved down from the more barren hill-tops to the 
meadows and richer lands, where capital and labor, 
wisely expended, are at first absolutely needed, but 
where the ultimate return is large and ample. 

In this connection I desire also to call the attention 
of the Legislature to a measurq of justice and public 
utility which will restore to cultivation many acres of 
the richest and most productive lands in the State. 
There are in nearly every section of the Common- 
wealth, ancient mill-privileges under which the right 
exists, and has existed since the first settlement of the 
country, to flow back upon the lands adjacent to the 
streams which supply them. Many of these privileges 
are neglected, and have been unused for years, but still 
the dams remain, rendering all attempts to redeem for 
cultivation, the lands above, of no avail. There should 
certainly be some limit to the period when exclusive 
rights, originally conferred upon individuals for the 



54 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

common good, and which, under the changed circum- 
stances of the present time, serve only as instrumental- 
ities of oppression, and to retard the development of 
enterprise in the cultivation of the soil, should again 
revert to those proprietors of lands by w^hom they 
were originally yielded. Whether provision should 
not be made by statute limitation as to the time when 
all such unused and neglected mill-privileges should 
become invalid, is worthy of your consideration. 

Harris on Insects Injurious to Vegetation. 

The third edition of Harris on Insects Injurious to 
Vegetation, published under a Resolve of the year 
1859, chapter 93, has just been completed. This 
edition of a work, of which the first was published 
in the year 1841, has been enlarged by suitable 
additions and illustraJ:ions, and is nearly ready for 
delivery. Extensive collections of insects were made, 
in order to have fresh specimens for use in making 
the drawings, which were supervised by Professor 
Agassiz by comparison with the original specimens 
before engraving. 

This is a work of great beauty and careful learning, 
and is fitted for much usefulness, if properly and 
wisely distributed. I ask the attention of the Legis- 
lature to that part of the Resolve of 1859, which 
provides for a partial distribution. The whole sub- 
ject is in the control of the present Legislature, and 



7^ 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 55 

I venture to suggest that a work, the actual cost of 
which to the State is nearly three dollars a copy, and 
which will not be reproduced for another twenty years 
to come, should be given away only to those by whom 
it is likely to be prized for its scientific uses. 

The Resolve provides for giving a copy, to each 
member and reporter of the Legislature of 1859, by 
which it was passed. But this is a subject open to 
the revision of the present General Court. 

Distribution of State Documents. 

In this connection I suggest the expediency of 
providing by law a definite and complete system of 
distribution of public documents, prescribing in one 
statute the persons to whom each document regularly 
printed by the State shall be given, and the number 
of such documents which such persons shall receive. 
The present system is very imperfect and obscure, 
depending in great part upon ancient Resolves of the 
Legislature, scattered through fifty years of legislation, 
and has come practically to depend in a considerable 
degree upon the personal discretion of the officers 
having such documents in charge. 

Colonial Records and Provincial Laws. 

The twelfth volume of Records of the Colony of 
New Plymouth has been issued during the present 
year, forming the tenth bound volume of the series. 



66 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

Sufficient material for two more volumes has been 
transcribed, and is ready for the printer, and I am 
informed that seven volumes in addition to these two, 
will complete the series, and that more or less progress 
has been made upon them all. The historical impor- 
tance of ensuring the preservation of these records 
was well stated by the committee of the Legislature of 
1855, upon whose recommendation the publication of 
them was commenced ; and of even superior importance 
in every point of view, is the preservation by publica- 
tion, of the Provincial Statutes of Massachusetts 
covering a period of nearly a century, from 1691 to 
1780, the only complete collection of which in existence 
has been gathered in one private library in the 
Commonwealth, and is subject to all the risks of loss, 
destruction, and dispersion, to which private property 
is necessarily liable. In my Inaugural Address to the 
General Court of 1861, I had the honor earnestly to 
recommend the printing of these statutes, and I desire 
earnestly to repeat that recommendation. 

Reform in Pay and Work of State Employees. 

Observation during the past year has satisfied me 
that there exists great inequality between many of the 
servants of the State, — and particularly among the 
clerks in the various Departments, — in respect to pay 
and work. There are some whose hours of necessary 
labor have been twice those of others, and whose work 



7^ 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 57 

reqiiired a higher degree of intelligence, but who, 
nevertheless, have been inferior to these others in 
respect to pay. It is true that the past year has been 
exceptional in its character, and does not afford a 
proper standard for the permanent adjustment of pay 
to work for the future; but the present anomalous 
condition of business is likely to continue through at 
least the year which lies before us ; and I think that 
the whole subject is one proper for legislative investi- 
gation with a view to devise a remedy adapted to the 
facts. 

Ministerial Officers — their Commissions and Fees. 

I desire to renew the recommendation of a previous 
Executive, that the official term of Justices of the 
Peace be shortened, and that a payment of five dollars 
be required for each issue of a commission to them 
and to certain other officers, such as Notaries Public, 
and Commissioners for Massachusetts in other 
States, whose ministerial acts are legally compensated 
by fees. 

The number of Justices of the Peace at present in 
commission is 6,790, and of Notaries 486, distributed 
as follows among the Counties : 



58 



GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. 



[Jan. 



COUNTIES 




Justices of the 
Peace. 


Notaries. 


Barnstable, . 
















185 


34 


Berkshire, 
















388 


24 


Bristol, . 
















452 


52 


Dukes, . 
















30 


19 


Essex, . 
















694 


73 


Franklin, 
















259 


12 


Hampden, 
















348 


34 


Hampshire, 
















263 


20 


Middlesex, 
















939 


48 


Nantucket, 
















27 


9 


Norfolk, . 
















594 


24 


Plymouth, 
















398 


23 


Suffolk, . 
















1,443 


71 


Worcester, 
















770 


43 


Totals, 




6,790 


486 



The aggregate of Commissioners for Massachusetts 
in other States, who have qualified under their com- 
missions and whose terms have not expired, is at 
present 135. 

The labor of supervising these appointments is 
very considerable, and in respect to Justices and 
Notaries, is necessarily transferred by the Governor in 
great part to the members of the Executive Council, 
each for his respective District. It seems worthy of 



7S 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 69 

inquiry whether the public convenience really requires 
so extraordinary a number of Justices of the Peace ; 
but the term of their commissions being for the long 
period of seven years, it would be impossible for a 
Governor within his own executive term of a single 
year, to effect any essential change in this particular ; 
and indeed the custom of issuing commissions so freely 
is of such long standing as to interpose additional 
obstacles to the restriction of their number. 

But considering the labor which these commissions 
impose upon the department especially of the Secre- 
tary of the Commonwealth, and considering also that 
they afford means of pecuniary emolument to those 
who hold them, it seems not unreasonable that their 
issue should be compensated and restricted in the 
manner proposed. 

The Governor's Secretary. 

My experience has fully justified the resolve adopted 
by the last General Court, upon the recommendation 
of my predecessor, for the appointment of a Private 
Secretary to the Governor, and indeed, when I review 
the year, it is difficult for me to perceive how the 
necessary labor of my department could have been 
accomplished without such assistance. The mere 
statement that the number of letters addressed to the 
Executive on business more or less of an official char- 
acter, has averaged more than a thousand per month, 
and for some months has exceeded two thousand, a 



60 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

large proportion requiring attention and reply, is 
sufficient to indicate in part the necessity of such an 
officer. The year, to be sure, has been exceptional in 
the character and amount of the labor of the Execu- 
tive, but I have had reason to perceive that the office 
would have been of public advantage if it had earlier 
been established, for on assuming the duties of my 
present position, I was surprised to recognize the fact 
that no copies whatsoever of any communications to 
or from the Executive of the Commonwealth, had ever 
been preserved among the official State papers, except 
such as had passed into the hands of the Secretary of 
the Commonwealth in his official character of custo- 
dian of the records of the Governor and Council, or 
had been referred to some one of the Departments, 
or transmitted to the General Court. When the 
history of our country during the present century is 
considered, many events in which, in their relation to 
this Commonwealth, might have been illustrated more 
or less, by the preservation of such correspondence 
and documents, it is a matter of regret that hitherto 
no care has been had in this regard. 

For several months I have had to avail myself of 
the aid of an assistant secretary in the military depart- 
ment ; nor have the possible hours of work in the 
whole twenty-four hours of the day, been more than 
enough. As soon as the public service will permit, I 
shall discontinue this assistance ; but, at present, it 
cannot be dispensed with, unless we leave undone 



?c 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 61 

many details of business to the inconvenience of the 
people. 

The Exeaitive Apartments. 

In this connection I beg to call attention to the 
defective arrangement of the suite of rooms assigned to 
the Executive in the State House, with special refer- 
ence to the entire absence of proper facilities for ven- 
tilation. In their present condition, they are incon^ 
venient and unhealthy. 

Preparation of Legislative Business. 
One of the desirable things often spoken of, less 
o.ften accomplished, is the prompt disposition of the 
legislative business, the necessary condition of short 
sessions, which are, in their turn, the condition on 
which our ablest citizens are willing to become 
members. But this seems greatly dependent on an 
early and perfect preparation of the public business. 
If an early fixed day, common to all the depart- 
ments and bureaus of the State was adopted as that 
on which all their books and aff"airs were to be 
annually closed, and their reports made up, and were 
those reports placed in proper hands, — for example the 
bank abstracts into those of the Bank Commissioners, 
the railway returns, of a State Surveyor, the reports 
of the different penal, charitable, and sanitary institu- 
tions into the hands of the secretary of a central board, 
— all these crude materials might be reduced to order 



62 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

by just, cautious and skilful analysis, abstracted, 
tabulated and reported upon, printed, and laid on your 
tables at the beginning of the legislative term, to the 
manifest advancement of the business of the Court. 
I hope this may yet be accomplished. 

Military Defences. 

A letter dated at Washington, on the 14th day of 
October, was addressed by the Department of State to 
the Governors of all the States on the seaboard and 
the lakes, suggesting that it is necessary to take every 
precaution to avoid the evils of foreign war, in view 
of the fact that disloyal citizens, even before the 
present insurrection had revealed itself in arms, had 
hastened to foreign countries to invoke their inter- 
vention for the overthrow of the Government and the 
destruction of the Federal Union. The Secretary of 
State does not fail to urge with emphasis that one of 
the most obvious precautions against foreign war, is 
that our ports and harbors in the seas and lakes 
should be put in a condition of complete defence. 
In behalf of the President of the United States, he 
therefore invited the attention of this department to 
the subject of the improvement of the fortifications 
and defences of Massachusetts, and asked that the 
subject should be submitted to the consideration of 
the Legislature, when it should assemble, with the 
added suggestion that proceedings by the State 
would require only a temporary use of its means, and 



7? 

18G2.] SENATE— No. 1. 63 

that the expenditures ought to be made the subject of 
conference with the Federal Government. 

I availed myself of the earliest occasion to visit 
Washington, and to confer with the distinguished 
head of the bureau of Engineers, whom I knew to be 
intimately familiar with our coast, and with the 
system of defence appropriate to its condition and 
wants. The interview and subsequent correspondence 
lead me to the opinion that certain fortifications, both 
on our Northern and Southern shores, unless imme- 
diately taken in hand by Congress, ought to be under- 
taken by the Commonwealth, acting in concert with the 
United States Government, advancing its own means, 
employing the capital, skill and industry of its own 
citizens, working under the supervision of the head 
of the bureau of United States Engineers, follow- 
ing his instructions and plans, and receiving from 
the Government of the United States the national 
bonds to cover the expenditure, which, exclusively of 
the guns, would involve an estimated cost of ^400,000. 
I have the honor to lay before the General Court the 
letter of the Secretary of State, already alluded to, 
and a very recent letter drawn from General Totten, 
of the Engineers, for this purpose, in which last com- 
munication is contained a brief, but clear and instruc- 
tive statement of the condition of our harbor defences. 
The permanent fortifications proper in Boston Harbor 
will probably need no assistance from the Common- 



64 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

wealth, but promise to be followed up to completion 
by the Federal authorities. 

The communication of General Totten establishes 
the fact of the purposes of his own department, and 
we are enabled to see for ourselves what has already 
been done. I am assured also by General Ripley, 
the head of the Ordnance Office, at Washington, that 
in addition to the guns already mounted, and those 
the Government is engaged in mounting, of which 
there are a considerable number now on hand, it has 
adopted all possible means to obtain the additional 
cannon and carriages required to complete the arma- 
ment, which will proceed as fast as procured, and 
that a portion of this armament will consist of rifled 
cannon in the positions requiring artillery of that 
kind. 

The harbor of Provincetown possesses certain fea- 
tures of interest peculiar to itself. Of ample depth 
for all purposes, a shelving, sandy shore, accessible in 
all weathers without a pilot, and with an anchorage 
in which whole navies might ride in safety, its arm 
stretched far out into the sea, it seems adapted to be 
the base of naval operations along the whole coast 
of New England. I believe there is not a place so 
easily taken from us, and worth so much to an enemy, 
when taken, as Provincetown and its harbor. 

In the hands of an enemy it would harrass our 
commerce as it did in the last war with England, and 
would be a secure and tempting haven. The situation 



7f 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 65 

of that harbor at a pohit remote and not suddenly 
accessible by land from the populous portions of the 
State, has another military significance. Without 
means to throw a large force suddenly into the place, 
it would require a large garrison in constant occupa- 
tion. With a new railroad to strike the main artery 
of travel at Yarmouth, a substantial fort with a much 
smaller garrison, would hold it. Besides, it is said 
that the harbor of Provincetown is yearly endangered 
by the inroads of the sea upon its beach. Might not 
a road bed be easily so constructed as to serve at once 
as a rail track and a dyke or ocean barrier \ It is 
worthy your consideration whether the loan of some 
aid to such an enterprise would not diminish the 
expense of a strictly military work and the cost of its 
garrison, while it would benefit industry and strengthen 
the people in peace as well as in war. 

To whatever work of patriotic duty they are called, 
the People will come. There are those now among 
us and still ready to serve the country, who remember 
in the War of 1812, the thousands flocking down, 
some even from beyond the county of Worcester, each 
man with pick or shovel on his shoulder, and each 
town or parish headed by its pastor armed like the 
rest, to labor on the forts and defences of Boston. 
The People, if need be, could come themselves and 
wall up our coast with the masonry of war. 

The Vineyard Sound is the great highway of our 
coastwise commerce. Ninety thousand vessels, of all 



m GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

sizes, have been counted as passing Gay Head 
Liffht, in the course of twelve months. Without 
means of defence, a blow might at any time be struck 
there, involving a great loss of property, which the 
people of other States would feel not less deeply than 
would our own citizens. It is estimated that at 
least thirty thousand vessels annually seek shelter in 
the various ports of the Sound. In addition to the for- 
tifications existing and intended for the harbor of New 
Bedford, there is needed a United States armed steamer, 
cruising about that harbor, the mouth of Buzzards' 
Bay, and the Vineyard Sound. If attached to the 
revenue service, the same vessel might be usefully 
occupied for the Treasury Department, and in watch- 
ing over a large portion of our whole coasting 
marine. 

Besides the permanent fortifications, we need rifled 
cannon, with their appurtenances, for movable 
ordnance and temporary batteries, at suitable points. 
For these batteries companies of militia could be 
raised, with corps of riflemen attached. Such defences 
can be speedily prepared, and can be indefinitely 
extended. 

So, also, there are wanted, to be kept at hand 
for instant use, rifled ordnance and projectiles, for 
sea service. Never may the mercantile marine of 
Massachusetts, and her gallant and hardy sailors and 
fishermen, be obliged to creep defenceless home, to 
wear away their lives ignobly at a foreign menace of 



^ 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 67 

our flag ! Let the State be ready to arm two hundred 
merchantmen and extemporize a navy auxiliary to the 
national army of the seas, and let the national ensign 
rise to kiss the breeze wherever it fans the ocean, — 
protected by brave hearts and brazen peace-makers. 

The Militia, 

Military education, both in the militia and in 
connection with the earlier training of the semi- 
naries of learning, and the establishment of a school 
within the State taught by professors of military 
science, are all subjects deeply engaging the minds of 
the people. 

It is to be hoped that Congress at its present session 
will adopt some comprehensive National plan of militia 
organization, requiring all men within certain ages 
to make it a point of honor and duty, to instruct, 
strengthen and recreate themselves by that reason- 
able training, desirable to prepare the citizen to shoul- 
der the musket at any crisis of public danger or 
. disaster. 

I venture to recommend that our own militia should 
be brought to the highest perfection possible by legis- 
lative encouragement. Can it be regarded as due to 
the momentous possibilities of the future, or just to 
the people, that less than twenty-five thousand men, 
fitted and furnished to be mobilized in a week, should 
constitute an active militia % 



68 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

The whole number of our enrolled militia is one 
hundred and fifty-seven thousand four hundred and 
ninety-six. The whole number who have gone into 
the volunteer service of the United States is reported 
by our Adjutant-General as twenty-seven thousand 
two hundred and seventy-five. About eleven thou- 
sand more are estimated to be in the naval service, 
as sailors and marines, leaving one hundred and 
twenty thousand at home, besides those men capable 
of the ordinary duties of civil life, not included within 
the prescribed age for military enrolment. 

I beg leave to communicate a report made by a 
gentleman of the military staff, who fully appreciates 
the importance of this subject, and has given much 
study and examination to the matter of military 
education as it is elsewhere conducted. It is too 
thorough to be reserved only for private uses or to be 
embodied in this Address. 

Confessing to myself the deepest obligation to the 
several gentlemen of the general and personal staff, to 
which the Commander-in-Chief of the State militia is 
entitled, — including those added during the last year 
under the authority of recent legislation, — and in view 
of the arduous and increased military duties, it would 
be unjust were I to omit a public and cordial expres- 
sion of gratitude, and an emphatic recognition of 
patriotic and intelligent service to which whatever 
efficiency there has been in the work of the year is 
mainly due. 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 69 

Our National Cause. 

The ultimate extinction of human slavery is inevi- 
table. That this war, which is the revolt of Slavery, 
(checkmated by an election and permanently subordi- 
nated by the Census,) not merely against the Union 
and the Constitution, but against Popular Government 
and Democratic Institutions, will deal it a mortal 
blow, is not less inevitable. • 

I may not argue the proposition ; but it is true. 
And, while the principles and opinions adopted in my 
earliest manhood, growing with every year in strength 
and intelligence of conviction, point always to the 
policy of Justice, the expediency of Humanity, and 
the necessity of Duty, to which the relations of our 
Government and People to the whole subject of 
Slavery form no exception, so that I have always 
believed that every constitutional power belonging 
to the Government, and every just influence of the 
people ought to be used to limit and terminate this 
enormous wrong, which curses not only the bondman 
and his master, but blasts the very soil they stand 
upon, — I yet mean, as I have done since the begin- 
ning of the " Secession," — I mean to continue to 
school myself to silence. I cannot suspect that my 
opinions, in view of the past, can be misconceived by 
any to whom they may be of the slightest conse- 
quence or curiosity. Nor do I believe that the faith 
of Massachusetts can be mistaken or misinterpreted. 
The record of her declared opinions is resplendent 



70 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

with instruction, and even with prophecy ; but she 
was treated for years as the Cassandra of the States, 
disliked because of her fidelity to the ancient faith, 
and avoided because of her warnings and her testi- 
mony. And now, when the Divine Providence is 
leading all the people in ways they had not imagined, 
I will not dare attempt to run before, and possibly 
imperil the truth itself. Let him lead to whom 
the people have assigned the authority and the 
power. One great duty of absorbing, royal Patriotism, 
which is the public duty of the occasion, demands us 
all to follow. Placed in no situation where it becomes 
me to discuss his policy, I do not stop even to consider 
it. The only question which I can entertain is what 
to do, and when that question is answered, the other 
is what next to do in the sphere of activity where it is 
given me to stand. For by deeds^ and not by words, is 
this People to accomplish their salvation. 

Let ours be the duty in this great emergency to 
furnish, in unstinted measure, the men and the 
money required of us for the common defence. Let 
Massachusetts ideas and Massachusetts principles go 
forth, with the industrious, sturdy sons of the Com- 
monwealth, to propagate and intensify in every camp, 
and upon every battle-field, that love of equal Liberty, 
and those rights of universal humanity, which are the 
basis of our Institutions ; but let none of us who 
remain at home, presume to direct the pilot, or to 
seize the helm. To the civil head of the National 



18G2.] SENATE— No. 1. 71 

State, to the military head of the National Army, 
our fidelity, our confidence, our constant, devoted, 
unwavering support, rendered in the spirit of intel- 
ligent freemen, of large-minded citizens, conscious of 
the difficulties of government, the responsibilities of 
power, the perils of distrust and division, are due 
without measure and without reservation. 

The Great Rebellion must be put down, and its 
promoters crushed beneath the ruins of their own 
ambition. The greatest Crime of history must receive 
a doom so swift and sure, that the enemies of Popular 
Government shall stand in awe while they contem- 
plate the elastic energy and concentrative power of 
Democratic Institutions, and a Free People. The 
monstrous character of the crime has never yet been 
adequately conceived, nor is language able fitly to 
describe it. Groundless and causeless in its origin, it 
began and grew up, and continues, under the lead and 
direction of men who had received all the favors, and 
enjoyed all the blessings of our government, and who 
were bound by official oaths to maintain it. Reckless 
of consequences, and determined to ruin where they 
could not rule, they conspired against the welfare of 
nearly thirty millions of people, and their countless 
posterity ; they plunged them, with inconceivable 
madness, into every danger, and suffering, and sorrow, 
which can be generated by domestic war ; and they 
stand with souls blackened by the selfishness and 
audacious barbarity of the crime — red-handed and 



72 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

guilty before God and History, of the slaughter of 
the innocent, and the blood of the brave. 

Whether right or wrong in its domestic or its 
foreign policy, judged by whatever standard, whether 
of expediency or of principle, the American citizen 
can recognize no social duty intervening between 
himself and his country. He may urge reform; but he 
has no right to destroy. Intrusted with the precious 
inheritance of Liberty, endowed with the gift of par- 
ticipation in a Popular Government, the Constitution 
makes him at once the beneficiary and the defender 
of interests and institutions he cannot innocently 
endanger ; and when he becomes a traitor to his 
country, he commits equal treason against mankind. 

The energies, wisdom, and patience of the People, 
their capacity for Government as a corporate whole, 
and their capacity of voluntary obedience and subor- 
dination, whether in camp or at home, are now on 
trial. This is no merely local, accidental, temporary 
act of insurgency, to be treated by police measures, 
and civil correction. It is war, dreadful, solemn WAR. 
The influences, institutions, and adherents of despotic 
ideas and systems, reacting against the ideas of 
progression in liberal government, have arrayed them- 
selves against the only people and the only national 
power where Democracy has a citadel and a home on 
the face of all the earth. 

The despotic element in America, conspiring 
against our country's National Life, anticipated its 



/2- 
1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 73 

own earliest demonstrations of force by trying to 
extend the conspiracy to the inclusion of all the 
" nations who feel power and forget right." Involved 
in this controversy for life, for freedom, and for honor, 
let Massachusetts in following the flag and keeping 
step to the music of the Union, never fail to prove to 
all the world that in all the characteristics of her 
people she is to-day as she was of old when she it was 
who Jirst unfurled the flag, and pitched the tune. 
Henceforth there will be no one to consider how to 
" reconstruct" the Union, excluding New England from 
the sisterhood of States. Wherever for treasure, or 
heroism, or blood was the call they heard, the people 
of New England have responded by opening the lap 
of their industry, and by the march of their braves. 
And now when the beauty of our Israel has been 
slain in our high places, and when her Lee, and 
Revere, and Rock\vood, and Bowman lie in felons' cells, 
and hundreds of her sons wear out their hearts in sad 
captivity, victims of their valor and devotion to our 
Union, one irrepressible impulse moves our people 
and inspires our soldiers in the field — one prayer to 
see the day when an army of Loyal Americans shall 
hammer at the doors of their prison-houses, with both 
hands pledged to the solemn task of wai\ and with 
neither hand averted to uphold the Institution which 
is the cause of all this woe ; and that their bow shall 
turn not back, and their sword return not empty, 
until the grand deliverance shall be accomplished. 

10 



74 GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. [Jan. 

Maryland. 

I gladly point you to one oasis in the midst of all 
the resentments of the hour. A committee of the 
House of Delegates of the Legislature of Maryland, 
acting under instructions from that body, have 
addressed the Executive of Massachusetts, seeking to 
learn the condition of the widows and orphans of the 
patriots who were murdered at Baltimore on the 19th 
of April, and to be informed of any persons who were 
dependent on them for support, in order that the State 
of Maryland may take such action in that connection 
as befits its sense of justice and honor. Cordially 
appreciating the honorable and humane sentiments of 
the House of Delegates, the letter of their committee 
is herewith communicated to the General Court, and 
I have directed the necessary investigation to be made 
to answer its inquiries. 

Senators and Representatives: — 

I invoke your study to promote all the interests of 
morality, industry, thrift, and valor, so that our Com- 
monwealth and her People may crown all the heights 
of enterprise, virtue, and honor. Attended by your 
wisdom, supported by your sympathy, I re-ascend 
the chair, so often and so worthily filled by great 
magistrates and good men, and you will assist my 
unequal steps in treading the paths their lives illu- 



1862.] SENATE— No. 1. 75 

mined. Inspired by trust in God and an immortal 
hate of Wrong, let us consecrate, to-day, every per- 
sonal aspiration and every private hope, in one united 
apostrophe to our Country and her cause — " Where 
thou goest I will go ; and where thou lodgest, I will 
lodge ; thy people shall be my people, and thy God 
my God : where thou diest, will I die, and there will 
I be buried." 



'y 



LEJa'l3 



